Jeff Van Gundy makes this point:
“But I think everybody who’s ever watched, coached or played basketball knows the difference between dirty play and hard play.”
Yep, the guys on MY team play hard, and the guys who play elsewhere are dirty.
Arlene Ackerman on facilities
Arlene Ackerman, reflecting on her first year in Philadelphia, seems ready to take on teachers and principals, playing the “tougher standards” card in this article.
What struck me was her description of the school construction process:
One example is the way new facilities have been built, she said. In the past, school advocates got new buildings or renovations based on meetings and promises from administrators. She wants a master facilities-planning process, with some kind of formula to determine which schools get built, and when.
“People don’t go to the superintendent, have a meeting, and get promised a school when there are schools that have been waiting for years and decades to get needed renovations,” Ackerman said.
Now I don’t doubt that there are political subplots to which schools get built and repaired and which ones don’t, but a bit more evidence here would be helpful. This suggestion plays into conspiracy theories–some of which are undoubtedly true–but a simple follow-up question asking for an example would have helped.
Poor reporting?
There’s a lead article in today’s Times describing Arne “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” Duncan’s plan to move towards closing schools as a new type of federal reform.
I have a lot to say about the feasibility of such a program — it would only work with massive financial incentives, incentives which would then flow into the hands of district administrators whose financial track record is hardly proven — but what was striking about this article is that neither the reporter nor Duncan mentioned where these schools are and which children would be affected.
There’s no mention of race or class in describing poorly performing high schools (for that matter, there’s minimal mention of how you’d define these schools: I’m sorry suburban family, your high school didn’t send enough kids to Yale this year) so it elides the fact that any program would necessarily be about Philadelphia, New York, LA: the big school districts that serve primarily poor children of color.
Paul Vallas quote
“You really cannot have educators running major school systems. They’re simply not trained.”
Wilgoren, J. (1999, December 26). Now Seeking a Superhero. New York Times, p. 1.
Categories of Thoughtfulness
Re-discovered this study by Fred Newmann on high school social studies classes.
The “six key indicators of thoughtfulness” are as follows:
1. Classroom discourse focuses on sustained examination of a few topics rather than superficial coverage of many.
2. The discourse is characterized by substantive coherence and continuity.
3. Students are given sufficient time to think before being required to answer questions.
4. The teacher presses students to clarify or justify their assertions, rather than accepting and reinforcing them indiscriminately.
5. The teacher models the characteristics of a thoughtful person.
6. Students generate original and unconventional ideas in the course of the interaction.
Newmann, F. (1990). Qualities of Thoughtful Social Studies Classes: An Empirical Profile. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 22, 253-275.
I would love
to read this essay with a group of teachers, to discuss its relevance/irrelevance.
Favorite quote:
A good job requires a field of action where you can put your best capacities to work and see an effect in the world. Academic credentials do not guarantee this.
Crawford, Matthew B. . “The Case for Working with Your Hands ” New York Times, May 24 2009, 36-41.
Cornel West spoke…
today at Saint Joe’s graduation. While it’s always fun to see an academic rock-star — is there a single historian that folks would line up to have their picture taken with — his speech was short and inspiring.
One quote I hadn’t heard before:
“justice is the public expression of love.”
Not sure I got it quite right… searching the interwebs, I come up with the following versions:
Justice is love expressing itself publicly.
Justice is what love looks like in public.
I think the second is the one from West’s written works.
TV monologue
We’re big fans of Rescue Me. Last night’s episode concluded with a stunning monologue by Callie Thorne (Sheila). Maybe the most powerful bit of TV acting I’ve seen in a long while or at least since we last watched The Wire.
The Visitor
Lost my list of 2007, 2008, 2009 films viewed; going to incorporate into main blog.
Either way, this powerful film, having watched on a Saturday evening after having read the reports of exactly what the CIA has been doing for the past five years, and I was left wondering how Americans can begin to re-build a government that stands for something.
Love your country all the time and your government when they deserve it.
Mark Twain
seamus heaney
History says, Don’t hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
Seamus Heaney, “Voices from Lemnos,” in Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966-1996 (NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998), 305-306.
